A study of the effectiveness of school health education programs on selected mosquito borne diseases: school based cross-sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20172478Keywords:
Cross sectional study, Mosquito borne Diseases, School going children, School health education programAbstract
Background: School health education programs provide a convenient platform for engaging the students in health promotion activities. Public health problems like mosquito borne diseases cannot be controlled without active participation of the community and students are a resourceful component of the community who can be encouraged to take up activities to control mosquito borne diseases in the community.
Methods: School-based cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2010 to March 2011 among 508 school students selected at random from students studying in the eighth to tenth standard. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Totally 508 students were included in this study. The number of students unaware of the stages in the mosquito life cycle and the mosquito’s resting habits reduced from 420 (82.68%) to 19 (3.74%) and 103 (20.28%) to 13 (2.56%) respectively. The number of students with correct knowledge of the biting habits of the female mosquito and personal protection (PP) measures increased from 31.69% to 97.05% with statistically highly significant (p <0.0001) and 52.95% to 74.21% respectively.
Conclusions: The present study suggested that the school health education program is effective in creating awareness and increasing the knowledge regarding mosquito borne diseases among school children and possibilities of successfully engaging the community at large in the fight against mosquito borne diseases. The need would be to sustain this activity and implement it in schools as part of the vector borne disease control programme.Metrics
References
Bhatt S, Gething PW, Brady OJ, Messina JP, Farlow AW. The global distribution and burden of dengue. Nature. 2013;496:504-7.
Mackenzie JS, Gubler DJ, Petersen LR. Emerging flavi viruses: the spread and resurgence of Japanese encephalitis, West Nile and dengue viruses. Nat. Med. 2004;10:S98-109.
Powers AM, Brault AC, Tesh RB, Weaver SC. Re-emergence of Chikungunya and O'nyong-nyong viruses: evidence for distinct geographical lineages and distant evolutionary relationships. J Gen Virol. 2000;8:471-9.
Gurugama P, Garg P, Perera J, Wijewickrama A, Seneviratne SL. Dengue viral infections. Indian J Dermatol. 2010;55(1):68-78.
Goel A, Patel DN, Lakhan KK, Agarwal SB, Agarwal A, Singla S, et al. Dengue fever-a dangerous foe. JIACM. 2004;5(3):247-58.
Whitehorn J, Farrar J. Dengue. Br Med Bull. 2010;95:161-73.
Reiter P. Yellow fever and dengue: a threat to Europe? Euro Surveill. 2010;15(10):19509.
Travelers' Health Outbreak Notice. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2010. Available at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices. Accessed on 05 June 2011.
Duane J. GubleR. The economic burden of dengue. Am J Trop med Hygv. 2012;86(5):743-4.
Caribbean chikungunya outbreak grows, poses threat to US, 2013. Available at http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2013 /12/caribbean-chikungunya-outbreak-grows-poses-threat-us Accessed on 28 January 2014.
Dengue matters, 2014 Available at http://www.denguematters.info/content/issue-14-dengue-updates-december-2013#sthash.4nWsy UBx.dpuf. Accessed on 28 January 2014.
WHO: Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Dengue Vaccine Research, 2013. Available at www.who.int/immunization/research/development/dengue_vaccines/en/. Accessed on 28th January 2014.
Mire CE, Versteeg KM, Cross RW, Agans KN, Fenton KA. Single injection recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vaccines protect ferrets against lethal Nipah virus disease Mire. Virol J. 2013;10:353.
Future dengue fever treatments. Available at www.nature.com/scitable/.../future-dengue fever-treatments-22404960 Accessed on 06 March 2014.
WHO. Neglected diseases dengue day. Available at www.who.int/neglected_diseases/Dengue_day_asean.../en/index.html Accessed on 06 March 2014.
Griffiths W. Health Education Definitions, Problems, and Philosophies. Health Educat Monographs. 1972;31:12-4.
Boratne AV, Datta SS, Singh Z, Anil PJ, Jayanthi V, Senthilvel V. Attitude and practices regarding mosquito borne diseases and socio-demographic determinants for use of personal protection methods among adults in coastal Pondicherry. Ind J Med Specialities. 2010;1(2):91-6.
Shuaib F, Todd D, Campbell-Stennett D, Ehiri J, Jolly PE. Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding dengue infection in westmoreland, jamaica. West Indian Med J. 2010;59(2):139-46.
Boratne AV, Jayanthi V, Datta SS, Singh Z, Senthilvel V, Joice YS. Predictors of knowledge of selected mosquito-borne diseases among adults of selected peri-urban areas of Puducherry. J Vector Borne Dis. 2010;47:249-56.
Madeira NG, Macharelli CA, José JFP, Delfino MCN. Education in primary school as a strategy to control dengue. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2002;35(3):221-6.
Chikungunya Fever. Available at www.searo.who.int/.../Chikungunya_FactSheet_Chikungunyafever.pdf . Accessed on 05 June 2011.
Muninarayana C, Hiremath SG, Iyengar K, Anil NS, Ravishankar S. Awareness and perception regarding malaria in devarayasamudra primary health centre area. Ind J for the Pract Doct. 2008;5(1).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
